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Immaculate Vibes

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totallynotabuttpirate
totallynotabuttpirate

Yea, that's what I'm focused on right now. Nothing better than both sides-ing it after watching what those terrorists did to innocent civilians.  Looking forward to your links of videos showing I

Superhero
Superhero

It’s been a serious, sometimes political debate whether a person from Taiwan should refer to themselves as Chinese from Taiwan, or Taiwanese. The current mood is to call our(?)selves Taiwanese. F

CHIEF
CHIEF

Good God. Don't you have have a Foie Gras in Tuscany waiting for you? Or a 25 year old Silver Oak Cabernet, in Sonoma? Stay in the CR, where you belong. I'm sorry, I don't usually lash out, but you ar

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FartingMonk

FartingMonk 3608

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Part of the issue is loans are secured by outgoing governments, they take their cuts, get subcontracts and then leave it to the next administration to pay off. Happened in Kenya. 

Have a good friend who lives in Kenya. he hates the Chinese investment and talks about it all the time. What was interesting is few people can afford to ride the train and too expensive for cargo. So China said right, drop the rates, and BTW, we will take over the oil terminal in the Mombassa port. Kenya said nope. It is part of their master energy plan and China hates it. Chinese Oil has to go out of Sudan north. The plan is for South Sudan to Mombassa to remove what Sudan gets. That is one of China's allies in Africa, just quietly.

The notes about Gwadar is interesting. That was a massive project started back when in the early 2000's. Dubai Ports was trying to secure it. Pakistan took the loans and gave it to China.

Hope the developing world wakes up to the risks. 

That was one of my biggest concerns about the Paris Accord.  We funnel billions of dollars to the U.N so they can give it to developing nations to undertake massive projects led by the Chinese.  So basically we are just giving money to the Chinese and these projects get abandoned after it is pilfered from bribes and half assed work.

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Even if China managed to take Taiwan militarily, they'd get buttfucked by sanctions. 

Unfortunately I doubt this. We’ve showed our hand sanction wise with Ukraine and it will be even harder to exclude China meaningfully from any markets. 
 

Do you have anything specific in mind that would really hurt them?

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FartingMonk

FartingMonk 3608

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Humble Beast said:

Unfortunately I doubt this. We’ve showed our hand sanction wise with Ukraine and it will be even harder to exclude China meaningfully from any markets. 
 

Do you have anything specific in mind that would really hurt them?

Quit buying rubber dog poop from Hong Kong

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Parliament

Parliament 14262

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Humble Beast said:

Unfortunately I doubt this. We’ve showed our hand sanction wise with Ukraine and it will be even harder to exclude China meaningfully from any markets. 
 

Do you have anything specific in mind that would really hurt them?

American soybeans would really hurt them.  Totally valid question of if we'd do it.

Peter Zeihan (love him or hate him) says we could easily shut down most of their oil imports.  Again, bid question if we'd be willing to do it.

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Parliament said:

American soybeans would really hurt them.  Totally valid question of if we'd do it.

Peter Zeihan (love him or hate him) says we could easily shut down most of their oil imports.  Again, bid question if we'd be willing to do it.

I question how we could stop them from importing oil. Ukraine/Russia have shown that it’s very difficult to stop the flow of oil and gas to market. I guess if you’re blockading China then maybe that is possible but that’s like A WW3 type scenario. 
 

Some of y’all have more thorough knowledge of the advantages each side would have. 

China-rare earths, dominance of solar/wind energy supply chains

US-oil/gas, soybeans. 
 

I’m sure there’s a lot I’m missing. 

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InkaUtexas

InkaUtexas 26006

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, FartingMonk said:

That was one of my biggest concerns about the Paris Accord.  We funnel billions of dollars to the U.N so they can give it to developing nations to undertake massive projects led by the Chinese.  So basically we are just giving money to the Chinese and these projects get abandoned after it is pilfered from bribes and half assed work.

Yes and no. We fund most development projects that go through the UN via Direct Action. We don't just hand over cash and say, hey, UN, cut Bolivia a check. One program I do like that is US run and led is the Millennium Challenge. Countries have to meet a threshold. We train locals, provide oversight, and then implement. I won't get into USAID. That would get me into trouble with the big bosses of the Surly. 

We are seeing more countries turn to the west for long turn development. Mozambique is a good example. Everyone thought China oil was going to take the development fields in the north. Nope, awarded to us and the French. And we in turn built schools and roads under a development package vs. loans. There is hope. Industry and development go hand in hand. 

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InkaUtexas

InkaUtexas 26006

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

I question how we could stop them from importing oil. Ukraine/Russia have shown that it’s very difficult to stop the flow of oil and gas to market. I guess if you’re blockading China then maybe that is possible but that’s like A WW3 type scenario. 
 

Some of y’all have more thorough knowledge of the advantages each side would have. 

China-rare earths, dominance of solar/wind energy supply chains

US-oil/gas, soybeans. 
 

I’m sure there’s a lot I’m missing. 

Rare Earth Minerals is something that interests me. Not what to do with them, but where are they and how do we extract. Worked an NSF project and that was the focus. REM in Africa. Man, I think my group figured out some good things. And fortunately the countries we focused on tend to be on our side. We could easily set up a REM project in parts of Africa. Secretary Blinken alluded to this yesterday when he was in the Congo. Interesting times are coming. 

 

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Rare Earth Minerals is something that interests me. Not what to do with them, but where are they and how do we extract. Worked an NSF project and that was the focus. REM in Africa. Man, I think my group figured out some good things. And fortunately the countries we focused on tend to be on our side. We could easily set up a REM project in parts of Africa. Secretary Blinken alluded to this yesterday when he was in the Congo. Interesting times are coming. 

 

That sounds awesome. We need to get cracking on that. It will be a big pressure point if/when we clash with China.
 

I’d also love to see us onshoring some more of the solar/wind supply chain. We’re seeing what happens when a belligerent country has a stranglehold on your energy. It’s not quite the same as needing a literal flow of energy like Europe from Russia, but it’s a big weak spot if we’re attempting to squash other means of energy. 

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Parliament said:

American soybeans would really hurt them.  Totally valid question of if we'd do it.

Peter Zeihan (love him or hate him) says we could easily shut down most of their oil imports.  Again, bid question if we'd be willing to do it.

Shipping routes are already being re-organized by Chinese to get around Russian sanctions.
 

 

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Bigass shopping center blew up in Armenia

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-62540398

Huh.  Remember going by there when we were there.  It looked like, ummm, a shithole.  Would be unsurprised by it being a gas leak or whatnot.  Armenian infrastructure is largely old Russian infrastructure, which has been maintained by the past 30 years mostly by the Armenian gov't and such, so......yeah.  Shit, you couldn't drive more than 25 mph on many of the stretches of "highway" we drove on (a few were decent.....mostly those that connected to the  nearby Russian military base).

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Huh.  Remember going by there when we were there.  It looked like, ummm, a shithole.  Would be unsurprised by it being a gas leak or whatnot.  Armenian infrastructure is largely old Russian infrastructure, which has been maintained by the past 30 years mostly by the Armenian gov't and such, so......yeah.  Shit, you couldn't drive more than 25 mph on many of the stretches of "highway" we drove on (a few were decent.....mostly those that connected to the  nearby Russian military base).

Follow up -- I see it was a fireworks storage warehouse at that location.  Yeah, shit happens in places with zero safety regs.

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Gengs1

Gengs1 2583

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Are they idiots?  Serious question.  Is there a cultural thing at work here?

The Germans follow the rules, they are black and white on rules, I think they just want guidance from gov on what to do, right now they been told to shut it down and are following the rules 

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Gengs1 said:

The Germans follow the rules, they are black and white on rules, I think they just want guidance from gov on what to do, right now they been told to shut it down and are following the rules 

The policy makers are idiots. The people running the plant need funding before they buy more fuel for reactors. 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Are they idiots?  Serious question.  Is there a cultural thing at work here?

Germany has a HUGE "no nukes" sentiment that runs through much of their society.  Some of it has roots in the cold war movements, etc., but it's become a super-strong and not rationally based thing.  We have friends there, and visiting with them less than a year ago, they were positively jubilant that their local nuke plant was going to shut down.  I didn't get it, I just listened and tried to understand.

18 minutes ago, Gengs1 said:

The Germans follow the rules, they are black and white on rules, I think they just want guidance from gov on what to do, right now they been told to shut it down and are following the rules 

And as for the operators, this.  They were ordered to fly the plane into the mountain.  They are just informing the higher-ups that they continue on course for the mountain, and will continue to do so unless given different orders.  That's as close as a German will get to telling a superior "are you fucking nuts?  I'm not doing that!"

This is one issue where I'm on the same page as many of our most strident conservatives: nuclear energy must be part of the long-term plan for weaning off of fossil fuels, ESPECIALLY for places that can't depend on enough wind and solar, but also elsewhere because it's a 24/7 generation source.  Clean, safe nuclear power has to be in the mix if we are going to meaningfully decrease FF emissions.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Lolololololol, their government isn't as awesome as our...

 

200w (2).gif

When it comes to workaday governance issues, you can choose WHICH issues a government will have, but you can't pick one that doesn't HAVE issues.  Really, it's like any governing body -- whether it be a corporate board of directors, a church session, what have you.  You can select one set of dysfunctions or another, but "none" is never an option.  Such is reality.

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Humble Beast

Humble Beast 258

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Lolololololol, their government isn't as awesome as our...

 

200w (2).gif

We have a lot of problems in our government, but we haven’t yet engineered an energy/economic crisis for our population. I mean there’s a run on firewood happening preparing for this winter. 
 

52 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Germany has a HUGE "no nukes" sentiment that runs through much of their society.  Some of it has roots in the cold war movements, etc., but it's become a super-strong and not rationally based thing.  We have friends there, and visiting with them less than a year ago, they were positively jubilant that their local nuke plant was going to shut down.  I didn't get it, I just listened and tried to understand.

And as for the operators, this.  They were ordered to fly the plane into the mountain.  They are just informing the higher-ups that they continue on course for the mountain, and will continue to do so unless given different orders.  That's as close as a German will get to telling a superior "are you fucking nuts?  I'm not doing that!"

This is one issue where I'm on the same page as many of our most strident conservatives: nuclear energy must be part of the long-term plan for weaning off of fossil fuels, ESPECIALLY for places that can't depend on enough wind and solar, but also elsewhere because it's a 24/7 generation source.  Clean, safe nuclear power has to be in the mix if we are going to meaningfully decrease FF emissions.

I don’t know the whole evolution of German anti-nuke policy, but the genesis of it globally came from a Malthusian perspective. It came about at the same time as over population concerns became more prominent. You even had prominent environmentalists decrying what would happen if humans had access to too much cheap energy. If we flourish too much we would damage the environment more. 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
Just now, Humble Beast said:

We have a lot of problems in our government, but we haven’t yet engineered an energy/economic crisis for our population. I mean there’s a run on firewood happening preparing for this winter. 

Sure.  Making my point.  Each government comes with different problems.  Our system has fostered a broad social ethos and function of narcissism and demonizing empathy so that we are building a "tragedy of the commons" (exacerbating the "private benefits, but socialized costs" outcome) writ large.  Different problems than more socially cohesive governmental systems and societies have.

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Superhero

Superhero 8830

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Getting locked into an IKEA store for a few days.  That’s a lot of non-functioning display toilets to try out.  And a lot of beds.

And a fucking nightmare.

But think of all the Swedish meatballs and Lingonberry drink you will be enjoying.

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23114

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Getting locked into an IKEA store for a few days.  That’s a lot of non-functioning display toilets to try out.  And a lot of beds.

And a fucking nightmare.

that's heaven for starter families. all that got damned furniture already pre-made! i'd jizz in every made bed as a sacrifice to the gods.

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23114

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Posted

not ketchup and pasta sauce!!! now it's fucking serious!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html

 The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.

“We desperately need rain,” Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand.”

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105161

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

not ketchup and pasta sauce!!! now it's fucking serious!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html

 The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.

“We desperately need rain,” Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand.”

I shall engage and fill my strategic salsa reserve.  Some matters must be taken seriously.

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Parliament

Parliament 14262

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

not ketchup and pasta sauce!!! now it's fucking serious!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spaghetti-sauce-under-threat-water-124539175.html

 The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.

“We desperately need rain,” Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand.”

The Midwest tomato crop is doing just fine.  Let's not panic just yet.

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